Purses Remain Steady for Derby Week Stakes at Churchill

Although an altered business climate amid COVID-19 has reduced stakes purses across much of the country in 2020, the stakes schedule for Derby week at Churchill Downs Sept. 1-5 is largely intact.

The purses for the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1) remain at $3 million and $1.25 million, respectively. Values for the track's other major stakes also largely retain their levels that were announced prior to the postponement of the Louisville track's signature week of racing this spring as a result of the pandemic.

"From a branding aspect, if you will, we wanted to mirror Derby week as much as we could, including purse levels," Churchill Downs racing secretary Ben Huffman said.

The schedule is not without some loss. Not on the Derby week schedule this year is the $500,000 Churchill Downs Stakes Presented by Twinspires.com (G1), a seven-furlong race won last year by champion sprinter Mitole , and at least two other lesser stakes are not being run this year, the William Walker Stakes for 3-year-old turf sprinters and the Kentucky Juvenile Stakes, a five-furlong race for 2-year-olds that would be out of place in September when distances for juvenile races increase.

The removal of the Churchill Downs Stakes from the Derby week stakes schedule was made in discussions with New York Racing Association officials to avoid that race falling in close proximity to the Aug. 29 Forego Stakes Presented by America's Best Racing (G1) at Saratoga Race Course, Huffman said. 

"They moved the Alabama (G1) and Travers (G1) to work with the Oaks and Derby," he said of the tracks working together to space their stakes under a condensed 2020 schedule. "There were negotiations with certain races, certain distances, and the Churchill Downs was too much of a conflict."

The Churchill Downs Stakes is tentatively scheduled to be run during the fall meet, Churchill Downs said in a release. That meet begins in late October and runs throughout much of November.

Replacing the Kentucky Juvenile as a race for 2-year-old males in the first week in September is the $200,000 Iroquois Stakes Presented by Ford (G3), a race usually contested in mid-to-late September at Churchill Downs during the track's traditional September dates. The Iroquois will now fall on the Derby undercard and kick off the track's Road to the Kentucky Derby series leading to next year's Derby, Huffman said.

The Iroquois provides qualifying points toward the 2021 Derby on a 10-4-2-1 scale to its top four finishers, as does the Pocahontas Stakes (G3) toward the 2021 Oaks. Both the Iroquois and the Pocahontas are "Win and You're In" Challenge races that provide automatic berths into the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Keeneland Nov. 6.

The $200,000 Pocahontas for 2-year-old fillies will now fall on "Thurby," the Thursday of Derby week. It, too, had been run during a later period in September. The Pocahontas, along with the Iroquois, is being contested over a one-turn mile in 2020 rather than as a two-turn 1 1/16-mile race.

Seventeen stakes comprise Churchill's postponed Derby week of five race days, totaling $9.75 million in purses. Before the pandemic, 18 stakes worth a record $10.18 million were planned over six race days from April 25-May 2.

Churchill Downs typically does not race the first week of September, only adding those dates this year after receiving approval from Ellis Park and Kentucky Downs, tracks in the state that historically run during that time frame.

Late last month, Churchill Downs announced that spectators would be permitted in a limited capacity at this year's Oaks and Derby under strict health guidelines. 

The large purses and rescheduling of Derby week caused Churchill officials to reduce funds from its stakes schedule at other times of the year. Some stakes were eliminated or had their purses reduced during the track's pandemic-delayed spring meet, which was staged without fans, and its traditional September and November meet will have reductions, Huffman said.

The Jefferson Cup Stakes, Locust Grove Stakes (G3), Lukas Classic Stakes (G3), and Open Mind Stakes, which carried purses ranging from $125,000 to $250,000 last year, will not be staged during the track's customary late-September portion of its meet, leaving the $100,000 Ack Ack Stakes (G3) Sept. 26 as the lone stakes over the track's Sept 17-27 race dates. It was a $150,000 race in 2019.

Another typical September stakes race, the Dogwood Stakes (G3), was moved to the spring this year.

With stakes "covered in the front of the meet, we didn't feel we could run opening week, the third week in September, and then leading into Fall Stars Weekend (in October at) Keeneland," said Huffman, also the racing secretary at Keeneland.

Along with other tracks in the state, Churchill Downs supplements its purses with revenue from slot-like historical horse racing devices. These are in operation at Churchill Downs Inc.'s Derby City Gaming facility in Louisville, which reopened June 8 with capacity restrictions after being shuttered due to COVID-19 in mid-March.

Churchill Downs derived much of its handle from advance deposit wagering platforms during its shortened spring meet, one of which, Twinspires.com, is owned by CDI. No attendance was permitted by fans in the spring, though the track opened to limited attendance by participating owners late in its season.